Butler Has Surprising New Look

11.10.2012 at 5:57pm - Basketball Times

BY LEW FREEDMAN

Basketball Times

INDIANAPOLIS—The run and gun Bulldogs.
Really. Remember those Butler
teams that clawed their way to the Final Four two years running? Remember how
they gutted out more close games than Stanley Cup champions? Butler under coach Brad Stevens raised the
protection of tiny leads to an art form.

For those who
thought the biggest change at Hinkle Fieldhouse during the 2012-13 season was
going to be the program's switch from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10, they
may be in for an eye-opening surprise. If the Bulldog style unveiled in the
season opener Saturday afternoon in a 74-59 victory over Elon turns into the
standard fare Bulldogs, somebody is going to get bushwhacked.

Saturday's 6,309
witnesses saw a Butler
team that regularly executed fast-breaks and were as likely to launch a 3-point
jumper as try any other suggestion in the playbook. It also helped that the Bulldogs
had snipers on the perimeter that could make those dagger-to-the-heart shots
instead of watching them clang off the rim.

Last year's 22-15 squad
was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The two predecessor teams made it to
the NCAA title game, but those Bulldogs seemed to survive on small miracles, by
making a crucial defensive play, or lay-up at the right time, not blasting
people out of the building.

An oddity of this
game is that it was part of the Maui Invitational. It was Hawaii without the beach. Although eight
teams will still play three games in the 29th annual event in Hawaii, not all of the teams in "regional” Maui action get to see sand up close. Butler is one of the invitees. Elon is not.

Even if the Phoenix won Saturday it wouldn't have won a berth in Hawaii. This entire
"Maui On The Mainland” deal is pretty much a scam to get the invited teams a
free fourth game in their scheduling. They kind of let you in the back door if
your name is Elon and only a handful of fans nationwide even know your geography
or your league. Elon is located in North
Carolina and plays in the Southern Conference.

Stevens said the
veteran visiting team worried him going into this match-up. There aren't many
Bulldogs left from the two-straight finalist teams. Center Andrew Smith is the
only active player in the United
States who has appeared in two championship
games. Heck, even Blue the Bulldog is on the way out. He is being trailed
around for instruction in being Blue by a younger bulldog this season. Yes, Butler has a bulldog
red-shirting.

Smith may have had
the worst game of his career against Elon, fouling out with zero points, but
the new guards alone soothed feelings. Senior Rotnei Clarke, a transfer from Arkansas, scored 21
points and that included hitting five-of-10 from beyond the arc. The 6-foot
Clarke scored Butler's
first 12 points in five-and-a-half minutes, but then sat out the rest of the
first half because he picked up two fouls.

"I was just trying
to be aggressive,” Clarke said. "We kept it going.”

They did, running
the lead to as large as 41-23 before halftime.

Clarke is no
run-of-the-mill transfer. In 2008-09 for the Razorbacks he averaged 12.2 ppg.
In 2009-10, he averaged 15.1 ppg. He averaged 15.2 ppg. in 2010-11 and was
named second-team SEC that season. In a November, 2009 game against Alcorn State,
Clarke pumped in 51 points. He got a souvenir out of that performance.

"They had a ball
made for me,” Clarke said.

Yet for all of that
success in the Southeastern Conference Clarke fled from Arkansas
to play one year in Central Indiana. A
coaching shift provoked it. Clarke said he believed he just had to leave as the
regime changed.

"I felt I did,”
Clarke said. "I prayed on it. Butler
had a lot of success. I wanted to be around a lot of good guys and coaches I
liked.”

The Bulldogs are
known for moving the ball around and around with multiple passes and using most
players in a balanced offense. But that was then and this is now. Clarke shot
from long-range and mid-range, but he shot. Stevens was asked if Clarke has the
green light. He blinked, as if trying not to dismiss the query as absurd.

"Neon,” Stevens
said. That is apparently a notch up from green. Stevens said his general
instructions for Clarke are, "Let it fly.”

Clarke confirmed
that. Stevens, he said, told him if he didn't shoot, "he was going to get mad
at me.”

It may end up
working out that way with freshman Kellen Dunham, too. The 6-6 guard from Pendleton Heights, Indiana
shot five-for-10 for 18 points in his debut, nailing three 3-pointers. In his
first official college game Dunham looked as if he had been around for years, although he said he could tell the
difference between high school and college ball.

"Everyone is so much
faster,” he said. "Everyone is so much smarter. Everyone is so much stronger.”

But the 3-point
still hurts them just as much.

"I think this team
is capable of going on 6-0 and 9-0 runs,” Stevens said. Not so recently. "We
didn't have that luxury last year. When we were up four we had to grind to the
end.”

Stevens played 14
guys and some of the big dudes did big things, too. Forward Khlye Marshall was
unstoppable inside, hitting seven of 11 shots for 14 points. Sophomore Kameron
Woods came off the bench to score eight points. One Woods basket was so
rim-shaking it will definitely make the season highlight film.

Roosevelt Jones, who
had a 6-point, 6-assist, 9-point game, tossed an alley-oop pass high to the
left of the rim. Woods swooped in and jammed in a spectacular one-hand dunk
that was so impressive it even gathered an exclamation point on the game's
play-by-play sheet.

Butler shot 61.5 percent in the first half to
Elon's 30.8 percent shooting. But the Phoenix,
which has high hopes for league play, regrouped at intermission and rallied to
cut that once-18-point margin to four, 47-43. Back-to-back Clarke and Dunham
3-pointers within 17 seconds torched the Phoenix,
however.

"I was excited,”
said Elon coach Matt Matheny of when the margin was within four. "I was excited
we played better. We played in the second half like we aspired to play for 40
minutes.”

One game does not a
season make, and especially not in the tougher A-10, But if this first look
preview of what Butler can be means anything, then other teams must beware.
Throw out the old scouting reports..